Almost a thousand Scots a month are declaring themselves bankrupt as the economic crisis and mounting personal debts take their toll.

Official statistics show that 6,158 filed for sequestration over the past year, almost twice as many as in 2005. During the second quarter of this year alone, 2,853 were declared bankrupt.

the justice minister, will cite the figures in a Sunday Times lecture at this week’s SNP conference in Perth, where he will call for tighter financial regulations to protect consumers from “extortionate” interest charged by “irresponsible lenders”.

With 45,000 people in Glasgow alone borrowing at interest rates of up to 164%, MacAskill will ask the UK government to impose a cap on the interest that lenders are allowed to charge or to devolve the power to do so to the Scottish government.

He also wants shops to stop lending to customers without carrying out thorough credit checks, claiming that it is unacceptable that people on low incomes can buy a £2,000 plasma-screen television on store cards when they have no means of paying the money back.

“The credit binge of the last few years is just not sustainable, and now is the time for action,” he said.

The “irresponsible lending” provisions in Britain’s Consumer Credit Act 2006 do not include any requirement for lenders to take proper account of borrowers’ ability to repay.

“It is extraordinary that the UK is the only country in Europe not to have a cap on the maximum interest rates which lenders are allowed to impose,” said MacAskill. “And it is absolutely unacceptable that lenders are taking advantage of this to hit borrowers with extortionate interest rates which leave people locked into a perpetual cycle of debt.”

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